Stacey Abrams is vowing to improve Georgia’s economic standing, but she believes her struggles with massive personal debt do not reflect poorly on her fiscal responsibility. So she's running for governor.
“I did not understand that those magical slivers of plastic that I was getting in in college, a $100 purchase was going to cost me like $3,000 over the next seven years,” Abrams statedin an interview with Yahoo Finance. “And that if I didn’t pay the bill every month it was going on some report that was going to follow me even after I had a great job.”
Abrams owes back taxes amounting to $40,201 for 2015 and $13,851 for 2016. She owes $96,512 in student loan debt and another $77,522 in credit card debt spread over nine different accounts. In total, she is about $228,000 in the red. This number is actually higher if you count her $178,500 in real estate debt and her $4,434 car loan.
Abrams — who would become the first black female governor in the country if elected — also appeared to cite prejudice for her financial woes. Defending her weak financial standing in an op-ed for Fortune, the gubernatorial candidate blamed wealth disparities between white, Latin and black households as partially the result of housing, labor and education discrimination.
Just what they need: a governor with no understanding of personal finance while blaming it on prejudice!